Chemy Cards (maybe spoilers)

[takenoko]

https://www.kamen-rider-official.com/gotchard/chemy/

So the first six rows are listed. That leaves four categories unknown

Probably not the first to ask these questions, but what do the 10 cards do if the pairs add to 10?

101-1-10 (ten cards) leaves us with 90 cards or 45 pairs. Surely there's not going to be 45 different Gotchard forms?

[Connie_Edogawa]

so, two of the unlisted categories have already been guessed (or possibly stated somewhere? dunno for sure):

Spoiler

Dinosaur and Monster

but they could've be inferred from the names of the chemys that pair up, since you can click each to get their name and a brief description, and they also show the card they pair with and name drop them in the last line of their description. for any paired with an unrevealed category, it still lists the name, but the paired card is a blank square with a ? in it.

as an example:

Spoiler

card number 8 of the plant category, Buglesia, says it pairs with "ベロソル"/"Perosoul" which is almost certainly a Kasa-obake, so monster category, and number 2 of animals, Catchula, pairs with "トライケラ" which phonetically sounds like "try-kera" a mix of how you'd say "tricera" in english, the "try" part, and how it's usually said in Japanese "torikera", so dinosaur category

as for the number 10 cards, we'll have to wait and see if Gotchard ACTUALLY uses them to acquire forms or not, but the toys make noises if you pair a 10 card with a blank in the belt, since 10 + 0 = 10, and has a little jingle for each 10 being the top of its category, which is either an eventual special mode for Gotchard or just a bonus to let you make sounds with every card. only time will tell.

it could just as easily end up being like Build or Zero-One where everyone uses different devices to transform, but they all use the same items (bottles/progrise keys), so technically it's possible for the main character to have a form with any item used in the show, but also some characters use the ones they'd use (Cross-Z using the Dragon bottle for his form and lock for his sword when both pair up for Build, or Jin stealing the Falcon key) or the belts make noises for ones even if they can't/don't use them in the show. so while there's gonna be 45 pairs that have matching backs showing what the helmet would look like for Gotchard, it'll probably also be like Build/Zero-One/etc where a form technically exists, but they never make an actual costume irl and it's just a design made for art/a video game.

[takenoko]

Ah, thanks for the explanation. But yeah, definitely no way there'll be all combinations on display unless some are cgi are something

[Connie_Edogawa]

tl;dr: this comment is just rambling speculation about powerups and can be ignored by anyone who doesn't like theory crafting that stuff.

here's a thought that occurred to me:

we know there are 101 chemy cards atm. on the one hand, that's already 45 combos plus whatever they do with the level 10s, assuming the 10s are even used for forms and not just a special attack or something, and whatever card number 101 is, assuming it's not just a dedicated blank card for pairing with the level 10s.

even with episode 2's reveal that some number of the combos won't be used as actual forms with a suit design and all, do we think Gotchard will:

a) go the Fourze route, where only some of the collectibles have forms attached to them, but you aim to collect them all and have a final form powered by all of them?

or

b) go the Build route, where there's a ton of combos, but we won't see all of them used, AND the mid season power-ups are "base form but stronger" so a souped up Steamhopper a la RabbitTank Sparkling and a pair of forms later that are "just hopper or just steamliner" like RabbitRabbit and TankTank, then end with a final form powered by all of them?

given this is a series with a bunch of powers to collect, the "use all the powers" final form seems guaranteed, but I'm curious how we'll handle the rest of it, because I'm not sure if it's meant to be that all the categories of Chemy are roughly equal power and the form is situational (kinda like OOO actually), or if they'll hold off on the final two categories until the latter half of the show, pair them exclusively together, and make them like super mode forms or something.

[takenoko]

I feel like this series's closest analogue is Build, and Build had more forms than god. I think we'll see quite a few forms, but there'll inevitably some that just never get used

[Connie_Edogawa]

oh, no, I know there's definitely going to be a TON of forms never used.

what I'm wondering is, are we going to ONLY get the forms that can be made with the initial 101 Chemy cards, plus a "use them all" super mode, or will we get, in Build terms, "Steamhopper Sparkling" and "HopperHopper" and "SteamSteam"?

probably name the upgraded cards like "Hopper2" and "ElectricLiner" or something

[takenoko]

Ooh. Given all the combos, I kind of hope they all slot into the available Chemy cards and are from the 10 cards or something

[Connie_Edogawa]

did some math and realized there's a somewhat obvious tell that there's probably gonna be more than the 101 cards the show mentions at the start.

gonna have to wait until they announce the set list for Phase 02 of the Chemy cards for starters, and then Phase 03 to be 100% sure, since there's always the chance they pad out the sets with reprints at new rarities they didn't have before (some cards in Phase 01 only had a common, for example), but Phase 01 had:

30 Chemy (7 bugs, all 10 vehicles and jobs, and 1 each of animal, artifact, and plant) and 10 Heisei main Riders.

if we assume Phase 02 has the other 9 each of Animal, Artifact, and Plant, the last 3 bugs, and the other 10 Heisei main Riders, that's all 6 of the categories they've already shown online plus all the Heisei Riders, and all the Reiwa ones were in Phase 00.

that's 60 Chemy and all non-Showa main Riders before we're even 1/3 through the year.

even if they evenly split the remainder to have 20 Chemy and only half the Showa Riders per set for two sets, that doesn't add up to enough to match the output they'll have already done, so there'll have to be either a lot of padding with rarity shifted reprints and/or a bunch more new cards.

[Lunagel]

Toei adding extra stuff to boost sales?! Say it ain't so!

[Connie_Edogawa]

https://www.kamen-rider-official.com/gotchard/chemy/

link's been updated.

it now includes the rows for Occult and Ancient categories, but ONLY lets you see the level 10s, UFO X and X Rex, the remaining 18 only being unselectable silhouettes, though some of their names ARE actually already available if you know which other chemy to check, because any non-level 10 chemy you can click on will also list the name of the chemy it pairs with. some of the ones in the already revealed categories pair with ones from the two new ones, and you can make guesses based on what number would have to pair with them and the style of their name.

for example, Gekiocopter, the number 4 vehicle, is said to pair with "Daioni", which a) would have to be number 6 of its category, and b) sounds more likely to be occult than ancient.

[takenoko]

Pretty sleuthy!

[Connie_Edogawa]

having gone through it, I've put together who pairs with what, mostly.

spoiler tagging because big image, the level 10s get blank boxes (that I could SWEAR I made solid black when I did this in paint, so why it copied to tumblr as white I have NO idea)

and the ones with ? next to the number of their possible match is because those ones could be wrong, since:

a) we have two more categories to go, so they might pair with any of those

and b) it's also possible they DON'T pair with the last two categories, and those two are entirely a thing by themselves. my reasoning for thinking that being: if there are 10 categories, and 9 cards in each category need to pair up with another number outside their category to add up to 10, it IS possible for every category to only need to pair up with each other category ONCE and have it all split evenly, and yet we see even in just the 6 we already know for sure, that some categories double or even triple up, but all still have pairs within the first 8 categories, meaning the first 6 just DON'T pair with the last 2 and suggesting that might be the case for all 8, but until we get the info for the other 18 chemy in Occult and Ancient we won't know for sure.

Spoiler

EDIT: forgot to mention, I copied the color of each category's header to use for the numbers of the ones they pair with (Hopper1's 9 is vehicle purple while Steamliner's 1 is insect orange for example), please let me know if that makes this hard to read.

[takenoko]

>spoiler tagging because big image, the level 10s get blank boxes (that I could SWEAR I made solid black when I did this in paint, so why it copied to tumblr as white I have NO idea)

Maybe the black was set to transparent?

[Connie_Edogawa]

so, here's something else cool: they've already announced a while ago that there's going to be a bonus small set of Chemy cards, Phase:EX, that comes out on December 15th. like Phase:00 it's a handful of random chemy cards and a blank card, as well as Reiwa Rider cards, in this case being two new arts each for Geats, Tycoon, Na-go, and Buffa (one of JUST the chemy and one of them in their final forms from the show) and parallel arts for Zero-One, Saber, Revi and Vice, Geats, and Legend.

I liked back in Phase:00's release how they did the cute thing of having Revi and Vice's cards pair up directly, and the new alt arts play that up further:

Spoiler

something else cool, though, is they're reprinting the Level 10 Chemys from Phases 01 and 02 with new art. spoiler tagging THIS one because it's also an oblique reference to a thing relevant to the crossover movie.

this spoiler is just for appreciating the art free of context:

Spoiler

this spoiler explains it:

Spoiler

the gimmick here being that X Wizard seems to be the antagonist of the movie, based on the trailers so far, and the other five all come together to form a special form for Gotchard called Star Gotchard using the X Assemble card that comes as a "while supplies last" promo for buying the new sword, and, aside from X Wizard not being in the form and ExceedFighter being on the chest not the head, they're positioned according to their spots in the form AND have extra art bits that combo into a star.

[Connie_Edogawa]

page has been updated again, so we now know all the names and appearances of the Occult category.

also, thanks to it listing the names of whom they pair with, if the naming scheme lines up the way I think it does, then my chart was correct, and anything in Occult/Ancient that don't pair with the previous 6 categories pair together, meaning the final two categories are entirely standalone and only pair with themselves.